Dents

[+] Strictly Rubbadub

((This chapter contains sexually explicit content. It is entirely optional and included in but separate from the plotline. Reader discretion is heavily advised. This chapter is a lemon.))

I went into the tiny bathroom attached to 2D's room and shut the door behind me. It thudded in the doorframe unevenly. There was noticeable resistance when I pushed once more to keep it shut. The knob was ice cold and lockless. A draft crept in from a dusty vent in the cracked ceiling.

The tile floors were a murky green color and the walls had chips in the paint several layers deep, exposing paint patterns the room had seen over the years. There were various laundry piles and empty shampoo bottles scattered about the area, and the bath mat outside the shower felt squishy to the touch. If it had begun to grow legs and writhe around, I can't say it would have been all that surprising.

The shower stall was small. Fortunately, it occupied the most floorspace it possibly could in the otherwise cramped bathroom. In size, it was no more than three feet long and maybe a foot and a half wide, give or take. The plastic covering on the interior walls was a polarizing white, a stark contrast to its stained and grimy surroundings. The curtain was new. The rings of it squealed noisily along the overhead bar as I pulled it shut.

While the bathroom was rather filthy, the stall itself was immaculate in comparison. I was impressed. I was also a little confused considering how untidy 2D was known to be.

I turned on the tap. It sputtered dramatically in rusty orange bursts. After a minute or so it ran clear. I switched the function to the showerhead. Once again, I waited for the discolored water to flow out until it was reasonable enough to actually serve its intended purpose.

The rhythmic pattering of the water cascading down the drain hypnotized me. I watched it swirl endlessly as it danced around the opening before being sucked down into a black abyss within the pipes.

Eventually, the confined space of the bathroom accumulated a faint cloud of steam.

I stripped down and stepped inside. I left my clothes in a heap beside the threshold so that they might soak up any puddles created by the gap of the shower curtain. 

I stood beneath the showerhead, the rushing torrent cementing me in place for longer than I'd meant to permit. I soaked my hair in the spray and lathered it with a glob of soap from one of the numerous half-empty shampoo bottles just outside the curtain.

As I scrubbed and wrung out my hair, there was a soft tapping on the door.

"Et's me, Saoirse. Fink I could come in?"

I realized I'd been pretty dull-witted earlier.

When 2D suggested I take advantage of the repaired water heater, it hadn't been to help me shake the chill off. Perhaps that was part of it. Either way, he had meant for us to bathe together.

My skin flushed a rosy shade. I didn't know how much of it was the scorching heat of the water and how much of it was my own timidity. Even though we'd been together for so long, and we had slept together countless times, we never showered together.

It was new territory. It was a little nerve wracking.

"I, um, I - Okay. Yes. You can come in."

The entryway creaked. There was a hushed thump. I saw the faint shadow of 2D's lanky silhouette moving on the other side of the curtain. The downpour of water drowned out the sound of almost everything else. I overheard the light clinking of a belt as it clicked on the tiled floors.

The obscured outline of him settled in place a hair's breadth outside the shower.

"Wait," I muttered, "Before you come inside. Close your eyes. Okay?"